relationships

We, Em & Lo, worked with and are friends with (and Lo was apt-mates with) Jessica Baumgardner, who married Irad Eyal, which is our connection to the new book “Sex Degrees of Separation.” Irad has just turned his unhealthy obsession with celebrity hook-ups into an exhaustive encyclopedia that combines the idea of “six degrees of separation” and the game “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” with an emphasis on romantic ties and bodily fluids. Any “Us Weekly” subscriber (that would be Em) will be awed and amazed by the scope of this book, which includes extensively diagrammed connections between everyone from Paris Hilton to Diddy to, yes, Kevin Bacon. The graphic designers must be relaxing in a mental institution after this complicated project, which Irad compares to untangling a thousand iPod headphones that have been in your bag for a week.

We love to browse the “trending topics” at Twitter to see what people are tweeting about across the world. Where else can you get relationship wisdom from millions of people simultaneously? Our most recent favorite topic is the hash tag #YouAintForMe. Here are twenty recent ones for your edification — though we guarantee that by the time this post goes live, a few more thousand will have been tweeted. (By the way, you can follow us here on Twitter.)

MiszMaddy: if you tried to get at my bestie, #youAinTForMe
BenedicteCakes: skinny jeans? #YouAintForMe
jt_makemoves: #youaintforme if you cant play the faithful part…no time for infidelity

Light Writing Proposal from Derick Childress on Vimeo. Derick Childress wanted to propose to his girlfriend Emily in a unique manner, certainly a more unique one than via the jumbotron during a basketball game. He hit upon the idea of spelling out his question using light writing on an epic scale. He scouted variation locations…

Photography duo Paulie & Pauline are coming out with a new book in April called “Off the Set” which features porn stars and their partners in intimate, non-porn moments. Paired with the images of the ten couples are essays by the photographers and some of their subjects, actual love letters, and stories that humanize people often thought of as sex machines. We asked Paulie and Pauline to give us some background on a few of the images from the book (which you can pre-order from Amazon):

“This cover photo is of Digital Playground contract star Jesse Jane and her husband Rich. Her given name is Cindy, which is just perfect because she reminds us of sweet little Cindy Loo Hoo from How The Grinch Stole Christmas! She’s a tiny slip of a thing, especially when she’s standing next to her husband, who could easily be mistaken for a Na’vi from Pandora if you painted him blue. We photographed them one hot summer morning at their home outside Oklahoma City earlier this year.

Julie Klausner’s new memoir, I Don’t Care About Your Band, is one of the funniest books about dating we’ve ever read. And this is coming from two women who are kind of sick of (a) memoirs and (b) books about dating. Her book will remind you that dating can always get worse — but fortunately, the worse the date, the better the story it’ll eventually make. (If nothing else, you’ll be comforted by the fact that your blind date was never arrested for kidnapping.) Here’s an excerpt in which she compares Kermit the Frog to skinny hipster bad boys/bad boyfriends:

We recently spoke with Hannah Seligson about her new book “A Little Bit Married: How to Know When It’s Time to Walk Down the Aisle or Out the Door”:

Why did you write this book? Personal experience?

Of course! I’m my own guinea pig. After my first round of being A Little Bit Married, I became intrigued by this new dating pattern that I saw practically every 20-something friend of mine ebb in and out of. Here were these relationship that fifty or sixty years ago would have most likely culminated in marriage, but today often do not. So the book is an attempt to understand why that’s the case.

Who said that a new year’s resolution had to involve giving up something you enjoy? Rehab is for quitters! Here’s a novel idea: take on some booty-related resolutions instead. We’ve compiled two lists of resolutions, depending on whether you’re single or loved-up. Learn them, live them, love them…

If you’re in a LTR (or monogamish)…

No more faking in bed. And we don’t just mean orgasms–no more pretending that you like something you don’t, either (“Oooh yeah baby that feels so good when you yank on my pubes”). For inspiration, check out all the real orgasms at Beautiful Agony.
Vow to never ask yourself, “Is this normal?” in bed.
Phone sex — just do it. (You can baby-step your way there via dirty talk and text-sex.)

Enjoy these scanned images of an anachronistic dating guide from 1938 instructing women on how to behave in order to get a man to put a ring on it. It includes gems such as: Don’t drink too much, as a man expects you to keep your dignity all evening. Drinking may make some girls seem…

photo by Average Jane Forget charades, let’s debate the Stupak Amendment! So what made you guys decide not to circumcise your son? No Brussels sprouts for me, thanks — we’re planning on anal tonight and I don’t want to be gassy. Hoo-boy, anyone got a box of matches I could borrow for the bathroom? I…

How novel is this? A politician sends out an email to his supporters and doesn’t ask for money…he doesn’t ask you to write letters about policy…or to volunteer your time to some campaign. He simply asks you to “remember a funny story about someone you love, smile, and be thankful.”

We heart Al Franken. Thank goodness he’s one of the Minnesota senators now.

This past Saturday, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the night he met Franni, his wife, he emailed all of his supporters basically an open love letter to her, acknowledging that he wouldn’t be where he is today — the United States Congress — without her. Those with a block of ice for a heart might find this a little too precious, or perhaps even inappropriate for a man in public office, but we think it’s comforting to know that at least one politician in Washington is actually a human being. Even better, a human being with a romantic streak. Here’s the letter:

You know that soft, worn, concert t-shirt you’ve been holding onto that was left behind by that asshole who broke your heart with a meat cleaver? Well, now you have a chance to get rid of it once and for all, to make a clean break — and the best thing about it is that it will be in the name of art! The Museum of Broken Relationships collects the leftovers of relationships gone wrong, items loaded with the memories and significance and sadness of their previous (anonymous) owners: fuzzy handcuffs…a wedding dress…an, um, axe.

If you’re wondering why so many couples fight about money, here’s your answer: Surveys of married adults consistently show that opposites attract when it comes to the type of spender you are. Stingy tightwads who just can’t bring themselves to reach for the wallet, even when they know they should, tend to shack up with reckless spendthrifts who just can’t help overspending, even when they know they shouldn’t. Researchers say this is because we’re attracted to people who don’t possess the characteristics we hate in ourselves.

Photos in collaboration with Jonas Unger. Björn Franke’s “Traces of an Imaginary Affair” is a kit consisting of nine tools that will expedite the end of most relationships by providing the physical evidence–bite marks, carpet burns, scratches, lipstick and perfume residues, and such–of a passionate, but imaginary affair. The project broaches the issue of intentionally…